I’ve been wanting to make bath bombs with the kids for quite some time now. One morning I was plotting how exactly we’d go about this, when I realized that all those plastic easter eggs I’ve got sitting in the storage room are very similar in shape to the plastic ornaments everyone uses to mold their bath bombs. And I was even more excited that I had this idea right before Easter. Perfect timing!

I researched and tested all the different bath bomb recipes I have pinned on my DIY Crafts + Projects board to come up with the best possible recipe. All the recipes have the same ingredients: Citric Acid, Baking Soda, Epsom Salts, Cornstarch, Essential Oils, Coloring and some water and/or witch hazel. Simple enough, right? Except I had no idea where to get citric acid and the wide world of essential oils is completely foreign to me.

I ordered citric acid from Amazon, which was easy enough. Then I popped into Whole Foods to grab some essential oils because I thought seeing my options in person would help. Nope. That made it worse. I was surrounded by a mind-boggling assortment of little vials, and I had no idea where to begin. I quickly left more confused than before. So I turned back to Amazon and ordered some oils from Eden’s Garden. Mostly because I liked the labels, and they were inexpensive. That’s some informed purchasing, huh? Pretty labels, and good prices. Yep.

Anyway, there are a bazillion tutorials for bath bombs out there. And some great YouTube videos, too. So I won’t go too in-depth here. But here’s the winning recipe:

1C. Baking Soda

1/2 C. Citric Acid

1/2 C. Epsom Salts

1/2 C. Cornstarch

2 tsp. Essential Oil

2 1/2 tsp. Safflower Oil (or any other light oil)

3 drops food coloring

1 tsp. water

You’ll also need a glass bowl, a mini spritzer bottle (I got mine for 79¢ in the travel section of Target) and a whisk. Round up your old plastic Easter eggs and throw on an apron while you’re at it, too.

Combine all the dry ingredients in the glass bowl. Break up any lumps with the whisk.

Combine all the liquids in the spray bottle.

Start spritzing the dry ingredients with the liquids…just keep whisking. You’re trying to keep it from fizzing…so keep it moving.

I used all the liquid in the bottle, then had to add a little extra water. You want it to be moist enough to clump in your hand without crumbling, but not so wet you can hear it fizzing.

When you’ve got the right consistency, start molding. I found it worked best when I packed a bit into each side of the egg, then scooped up extra and squished the two halves together.

Give it a little shake for good luck, then gently pry the pieces apart. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it, but once you’ve got it down, you’re good to go.

Cover a soft towel with some waxed paper and lay the eggs there to dry overnight.

Wrap up a bunch and give them out as Easter gifts. They’d be great for friends, teachers, and I can tell you my kids are HUGE fans. We’ve got a big bag of eggs, but they’re all ready asking if we can make more when they’re gone.

A couple more ideas:

Add some sprinkles or glitter to add some excitement.

Hide a small toy in the center so they have a surprise when the egg dissolves.

Try different combinations of scents and colors

Use different molds. Cupcake tins, ice cube trays, tartlet tins, etc.

And here’s what they look like when you add too much water to the mixture. They mold up like a dream, and you go to bed thinking you’re a DIY rockstar. Then you wake up in the morning to find your eggs have “hatched” and you’re not as cool as you thought you were. My daughter was pretty excited to see we’ve got some that are hatching, so she made a nest for them. Maybe she should make a nest for my bruised ego while she’s at it.

Christina Williams is a blogger and graphic designer living in Salt Lake City, Utah. She’s a night owl and a bookworm, as well as a mother to three children ranging in age from two to eight. She shares her latest DIY and design projects along with her adventures in parenting on her blog, Just Call Me Chris.

I wanted to create something really cute and precious for Easter. I was thinking of something whimsical in pastel colors, something sweet, but not a cupcake. I’m not sure why, but that’s where my mind was taking me. I had seen these Martha Stewart Meringue nests, which were cute; but then Sweetapolita upped the ante by coloring her nests blue. I wanted to make my nests pink at first, but realized that I didn’t have any red food coloring left – so blue it was. I kept them simple by adding a couple of chocolate eggs in beautiful pastel colors. This way they make an instant Easter treat and are easy to hand over as a gift as well.

While meringue is not hard to make, it does take time. So make sure you’ve got a couple of hours at home. Once you have the nests, your options are limitless. Fill them with candy like I did above, add some butter-cream like Rosie did, add fruit like Martha did, fill them with melted chocolate or make some lemon curd with the left-over egg yolks. I made this lemon curd and filled a couple of nests. It makes for a nice flavor combination, but they do get messy with all that sticky sweetness.

You can also store your meringue nests in an air tight container for a couple of days, just make sure you don’t crush them as they are quite fragile. The perfect bit of pastel whimsy just in time for Easter. And yes, we did give most of them as gifts, because there’s only so much sweetness I want to keep in our house.

Line two baking sheets or one large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to lowest temperature (for my oven this is 175°F).

Separate your eggs (best done when cold) and add the 5 egg whites into a clean metal mixing bowl. If you get any yolk into the mixing bowl, remove all contents and begin again. Leave bowl on counter until they come to room temperature.

Once egg whites are room temperature (warm is best), place bowl back on mixer and fit with whisk attachment. Mix on low speed until egg whites become frothy, about 2 minutes, and add cream of tartar.

Increase speed to medium-high and beat until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Gradually add all of the sugar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down over your head with no meringue falling out. Add food colour and beat until combined.

Fit a large pastry bag with a large tip and pipe approximately 3-inch circles, working from the middle outwards, followed by two full rings atop one another around the perimeter of the nest. Pipe 14 nests placing a few inches apart.

Bake in oven until completely dry and crisp, but not browned, about 90 minutes (this can take much longer, depending on your environment). Nests should lift from parchment with ease. Turn off oven and leave nests inside until oven has cooled, then remove nests from oven.

Notes

If you don’t want to pipe your nests, you can spoon the meringue on to the parchment and use a spoon to create a small indentation. This will create more organic looking nests.

Dying Easter Eggs is a messy business — that’s party of the fun. Help contain some of the mess by giving freshly dyed eggs a spot to rest.

Our simple solution: Stick a bunch of quilting pins into a styrofoam board to create your Egg Drying Rack. Normally eggs set on a paper-towel-lined tray get towel marks or dark spots from dye puddling. On the drying rack, eggs are elevated so excess dye will drain onto the board, preserving the egg’s finish.

It is still a good idea to protect the work surface with a plastic tablecloth, butcher paper or wax paper. You may also want to cut down the foam piece for your drying rack so it fits on a cookie sheet.

Honest to Nod is a collaborative blog presented by The Land of Nod, featuring tons of our favorite bloggers, designers and friends. If you’re looking for clever decorating ideas, unique diy craft projects, recipes and more, you’ve clicked to the right place.

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Honest to Nod is a collaborative blog presented by The Land of Nod, featuring tons of our favorite bloggers, designers and friends. If you’re looking for clever decorating ideas, unique DIY craft projects, recipes and more, you’ve clicked to the right place.